Unshackled Echo ~ July 17, 2019 ~ Let's Make A Deal

When I was a child, I enjoyed television game shows. One of my favorites was Let's Make A Deal. I loved seeing the people in costumes and watching the traders try their luck. I always wanted to know if they got to keep the donkey when they got zonked. I would laugh as contestants twisted themselves into knots of anxiety and anticipation trying to decide if they should release what they had already been given in the hope of getting something better.

What I didn't realize watching the show was how much of that mentality would adversely affect my life for years. Now I am not blaming the game show for my issues. I'm blaming my common human character that goes into making the show popular for also making my ability to receive from God difficult. It's a difficult and sometimes scary thing to let go, but letting go is what we have to do in order to receive from God.

To get the gifts that God desires to give us, we have to let go of the things we already have, which are in the way. There's just not enough room in our lives for both. Now the truth is that there is no zonk in the kingdom of God. God's gifts and plans for our lives are always much greater than what we have or can get on our own and more satisfying and fulfilling than our own dreams for us, always, every time. There's never a chance that if we hold on to what we have the reveal will show that we made the wise decision. What we have held onto will always look like a zonk when compared to what's behind the curtain of God's will for us.

But somehow it is common for us not to remember that when the time comes to choose. The Spirit comes with a wonderful opportunity and asks if we want the joy, peace, love and every blessing that comes from relationship with God, free, it has already been earned and paid for, we just have to be willing to give up the broken and lacking that we already have. We know our lives don't quite work. We know we can never seem to do enough, to get enough, to have peace and contentment. What we have never seems to satisfy well or for long, and even when it does satisfy there's a voice in the back of our mind reminding us that sooner or later life is going to be less than satisfying. Life without relationship with God is never enough. Yet, we waiver at the point of choosing. We look to the crowd for encouragement and counsel, we become anxious with the weight of the choice, when this should be the easiest decision we ever make.

There is no zonk with God. There is never a time when what He's offering is not seriously better. It's always a trade up. If we were watching the spiritual version of Let's Make a Deal there would never be the tension of the one we're familiar with. The child of God walks up to the Host, and it doesn't matter what he or she tries to portray themselves as, we know it's just a costume and not who they truly are. The Host can see through the masks. He knows who they are and what they need, what will make their lives worth living. He presents the question. Do you want to keep what only sometimes makes you only a little happy and leaves you anxious and miserable or do you want to give Me that in exchange for a life worth living, full of love, joy and peace? If they hesitate for even a split second, we groan at the show. You idiot! Can't you see that no matter what is behind the curtain it's got to be so much better than that worthless junk you're holding on to? I can imagine the angels feeling that way about me every time I  hesitate to release my will, my desires and what I have managed to collect because I am for some foolish reason afraid what God wants to trade me is somehow worth less.

There simply is no question. God wants to give us every good thing on an eternal scale in exchange for the lives that never satisfy. That deal is so heavily skewed in our favor we can never understand why God would even make the offer. It's like walking up to a homeless man and offering him a dream mansion on a beautiful estate in exchange for what's left of his cardboard box. Why? But the bigger question is not why God would make the offer, but why we ever even contemplate holding on to the box? Today, before we even enter the game, let us choose to always take the gift from God, no matter what junk of our own we may have to let release. It will be worth it.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

July 17, 2016.

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